Uttar Pradesh police chief evasive on murder probe progress

Lucknow, Dec 27 (IANS) The probe was under way into the murder of a government engineer allegedly by a ruling party legislator Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh police chief Vikram Singh said here Tuesday but refused to provide any details.

'Investigation is still in progress, so it would not be appropriate to divulge any more details in that regard at this juncture,' Director General of Police Singh told reporters here.

Public Works Department (PWD) engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta was mercilessly beaten to death in Auraiya, about 250 km from here, early Wednesday. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Shekhar Tiwari was later arrested for his alleged role in the murder.

Asked to comment on the allegation of the victim?s family members that no forensic investigation had been carried out so far, Singh said: 'We have sent a team of experts from the Lucknow-based state forensic laboratory to Auraiya.'

The legislator allegedly was assisted by two musclemen, named only as Bhatia and Tyagi in the first information report (FIR), in committing the crime. Queried about their full identification, Singh refused to give any details.

'We are still working on the case, so we would not like to give any further details that could affect the investigations,' he said when asked if the two were arrested.

Asked if Bhatia was the nick-name of a BSP activist in Auraiya, he said: 'I am not aware of any such thing.'

Opposition parties have alleged that the engineer was killed as he refused the legislator's demand to contribute Rs.5 million (Rs.50 lakh) on the occasion of Chief Minister Mayawati birthday Jan 15.

Singh was addressing the press conference to announce the killing of two men, suspected to be involved in the Dec 10 murder of three traders in Baghpat, in police shootout Satruday.